It was time for our annual family ski trip from Monday the 12th to Friday the 16th of August.This year we almost had a record breaking crowd of families turn up for the annual family ski holiday. So this trip report is dedicated to Louis– who broke his arm, Mia and Steph – who missed out as a result, and Antoine – who was lucky to get away unscathed. Gabriel, Raphaela, Larisa and Mat traded up for a Fiji holiday, but still supplied accommodation in Canberra via Rose and John. Thank you so much, the delicious meat pie with filo pastry and pumpkin soup with fresh cream and parsley all washed done with some Schnapps was awesome. We will be back – if you will have us again. The final turnout was considerable: The Donald’s turned-up with Marta (no longer Marzi), Liam and Will and the Grahams' with Tyler, Jake, Lyn and Dave. Louise’s family also managed to squeeze in a few cameo appearances with Chris turning up with his mates and Karista joining in for some fun from Canberra. There was quite a crowd of us on the mountain and the weather played along to welcome us back.

We spend the first day in Canberra at the National Library and more successfully at Questacom’s 360 swing and free fall slide. After the harrowing weather of Blue Lake it was a welcome relief to find Perisher with a nice fresh 50 cm of snow on our first day. Tuesday morning we headed down to Jindabyne and picked up our gear from:

Gear Hire:

Because we booked with everything with an intermediary company (Absolute Alpine) the total cost of ski gear hire cost about:

Accommodation

For accommodation we choose Discovery Holiday Park where we rented cabins for each family:

The cost from Tuesday – Friday was $807.00-
http://www.discoveryholidayparks.com.au/nsw/snowy_mountains/jindabyne

The park was perfect for kids with entertainment (games) room and even a public spa. Jumping castles, tennis courts, outdoor chess and barbecue facilities right next to the lake. The cabins were self-contained with kitchen bath and heaters inclusive car park.

Lift tickets

Best purchased directly from the Jindabyne office or through the gear shop. Make sure you get early bird discount and pre-order:

3 day KIDS Perisher Lift ticket (with half day free on arrival): 154$
3 day ADULT Perisher Lift ticket (with half day free on arrival): 286$
http://www.perisher.com.au/tickets-passes-accommodation/lift-tickets/prices.html

Note: we discovered that these tickets include free SkiTube between Perisher and Blue Cow. You still need to drive up to Perisher and pay 27$ national park fee per car per day. Skitube from Bullocks Flat (Jindabyne) costs extra.  

On our second day Wednesday the sun punched its way through the cloud cover and we basked in the warm rays all day long. In late afternoon the clouds moved in once again and it dumped fresh powder throughout the night. From Wednesday till Friday the fog lifted to reveal a winter-wonderland of deep powder and glaring sunshine. It was jackpot time and we cashed in every last cent covering every bit of trail from Mt. Perisher to Blue Cow. Usually, we escaped the madness of front valley early in the morning after dropping Martha of into Ski-school and leaving Jake and Tyler to their very first snowboard lessons. It was amazing to see the kids ski after a mere two days of instructions.

This year we tackled a whole new set of black runs:

• Kamikaze at Blue Cow saw three descents in varying conditions.
• The tricky rock garden below the Terminal Quad Chair leading to Blue Cow terminal saw its first descent without anybody using a limb.
• The Coca-Cola jump park near Powder Ridge saw many descents with some big airtime.
• And finally on day three the Olympic T-bar opened up for three vertiginous descents down the steepness of the black Olympic slopes.

Roman 17 August 2013